Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

AI/Edge
Brewer Science is introducing its first material for permanent bond used in assembling ICs, image sensor devices, and MEMS for devices and packaging that “include low-temperature bonding, extreme chemical resistance, UV or thermal curable bonding process, and no material movement after cure,” according to a press release. The bond is part of the PermaSOL product family. “These high-density, ultra-thin electronic packages are needed for artificial intelligence (AI) in high-performance computers, data centers, 5G, and high-end mobile products,” says Brewer Science.

Ginni Rometty is stepping down as CEO of IBM, to be replaced by IBM’s Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software Arvind Krishna. Krishna was a principal architect of the company’s acquisition of Red Hat, according to a press release.

Internet of Things
CalTech won its patent case against Apple and Broadcom with a $1.1 billion jury verdict. In question was the data transmission technology in Broadcom’s wi-fi chips used in Apple iPhones. Apple will appeal the verdict, according to Reuters.

Flex Logix announced a new EFLX eFPGA core designed for TSMC 40nm Ultra Low Power (ULP) and 40nm Low Power (LP) process technologies. The EFLX 1K brings reprogrammable hardware acceleration to battery-powered, power sensitive IoT devices, microcontrollers and mixed signal devices for data conversion and signal processing, among other uses.

NXP delivered Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) SoCs that are ready for IoT applications and can handle safe over the air updates and low power, says a press release. The SoCs have CPUs, memory (SRAM, flash), “MCU intelligence”, NFC (near-field communications), and various RF and 802.15.4. The QN9090 and QN9030 Bluetooth 5 System on Chip (SoC) use Arm Cortex M4.

Security
Microsoft Azure has two vulnerabilities that show some insecurity of Azure’s cloud infrastructure, including a lower-end Azure Stack Development Kit (ASDK) discovered by Check Point. The issues are a spoofing and remote code execution vulnerability. See CVE-2019-1234 and CVE-2019-1372.

Worries about foreign (aka, Chinese) technology’s capacity to spy are strong in the United States government. The United States Interior Department grounded its non-emergency drone fleet because the department was worried that technology in foreign-made drones needs to be examined for cybersecurity, according to the order. The Interior Department does not want a Chinese-made drone or drone with components from China intercepting and sending U.S. data to the Chinese government or others. The U.S. secretary of state also said this week that Chinese Communist Party is “the central threat of our times ” in an attempt to convince allies that Chinese-made electronics are not trustworthy. Britain plans to allow use of Huawei’s 5G technology in its 5G network.

SIM swappers are targeting U.S. telecom carriers’ resellers to get access to especially Verizon’s tool called Omni, which will enable SIM swappers access to phone numbers with the goal of breaking into various social media, email and cryptocurrency accounts, the website Vice reports.

Automotive/Mobility
Automotive parts company BorgWarner will acquire Delphi Technologies for $3.3 billion.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/borgwarner-to-buy-delphi-technologies-in-3-3-billion-deal-11580214139

Arteris IP added 17 new Network-on-Chip (NoC) IP licensees using the IP in automotive, machine learning and data center SoCs, reports the company. Arteris IP reports revenue exceeding $31M in 2019.

United Parcel Service (UPS) is buying over 10,000 electric delivery vans and will test Waymo self-driving vehicles next month, reported Reuters. The Waymo test will last 6 months, using Chrysler Pacifica minivans to move packages in Phoenix, AZ between UPS facilities.